Women reproductive agency.pdf (297.63 kB)
Examining middle-class women’s reproductive agency in collective and patriarchal settings of urban northern India by Ambika Kohli
This qualitative study explores how urban middle-class north Indian women from the states of Haryana and Delhi
practise their reproductive agency within collective and patriarchal settings. Snowballing was used to recruit
participants; 45 married urban middle-class women who have children were interviewed. Analysis was conducted
using Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of capital. Many studies take the view that Indian women’s reproductive choices
are controlled by their husbands and in-laws, suggesting that women are oppressed and without agency. However,
this study indicates that women do receive support within their affinal families that influences their choices but
does not necessarily indicate they are oppressed. These women, while practicing their agency, aim to achieve their
interests through strategies of resistance and/or negotiation within the patriarchal settings of their affinal families.
Their ability to both negotiate and resist suggests that agency is at once transformative and reproductive.
